1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an ink refilling assembly or adapter for refilling a used ink cartridge with ink.
2. Prior Art
A variety of ink cartridges have been developed for printers which use liquid ink for printing, such as ink jet printers. Some of the ink cartridges are disposed of once the ink contained in the cartridges has been depleted. Other ink cartridges may be refilled with ink when ink contained in the cartridges has been depleted.
Typically, a refillable ink cartridge has an inlet port which may be closed by a plug or a cap. A syringe with a needle-like injector may be used to transport ink from a separate ink container into the refillable ink cartridge through the inlet port. Alternatively, a separate ink container may include an injection nozzle which is attached to the container so that ink can be directly supplied from the container to the refillable ink cartridge.
These prior art ink refilling injectors suffer some problems. For example, while the ink container is held by the hand of a user, at the same time, pressure must be applied to the ink container to push or squeeze out the ink from the container into the refillable ink cartridge. Such the ink refilling operation is often cumbersome and causes spillage over the refillable ink cartridge and other parts of the ink jet apparatus before the ink refilling operation is even started. Such ink spillage may likely occur during and after the ink refilling operation.